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The Tragedy of the Empty House: Israel, the Law, and the Missing Messiah · Reformed Thinking

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Reformed thinking. Welcome to the deep dive.
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Today, our assignment is really focused on what happens when a
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spiritual identity is inseparable from historical
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peoplehood. We're going to be spending our
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time analyzing Judaism and looking at it not as you know,
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just a collection of religious beliefs, but as a covenant
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shaped identity. That phrase covenant shaped
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identity is absolutely the right place to begin.
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The sources we've worked through for this give us a really
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necessary 2 pronged approach. OK, so what's the first Rong?
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1st, we need a clear definition of Judaism from its own setting.
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You know from the inside out what are the defining traits
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that have kept it going for millennia.
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And then second, we apply a symptomatic theological analysis
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to that definition. And this is through our specific
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Covenantal lens. Exactly.
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We have to address the profound differences that really
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solidified after the 1st century and, of course, examine the
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prophetic hope for the future of Israel.
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You know what stands out right away, and the sources really
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take time to emphasize this is just how resistant Judaism is to
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being cleanly defined by our usual modern category.
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Oh, absolutely. We in the West, we love to
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define things. Is it a religion, meaning, you
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know, a private set of beliefs you hold in your heart?
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Or is it an ethnicity, just culture and ancestry?
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Judaism seems to reject that binary entirely.
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That core difficulty explained so much the ongoing
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misunderstanding. I mean, if you try to describe
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it only as a religion, you just miss the peoplehood, the shared
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memory, the inherited legal tradition that touches all of
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daily life. But the other way doesn't work
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either. Not at all.
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If you describe it only as ethnic or culture, you miss the
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absolute center of gravity. You miss the devotion to the one
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true God of Israel, the very thing that is animated every
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moral choice and every ritual practice.
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It is, by its own account, a covenant shaped identity lived
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out in community across generations.
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OK, so let's unpack this identity a bit more.
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We can use the structure our sources provide.
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It gives us 4 main anchors, 4 pillars that have held Jewish
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identity together through just massive world changes.
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I mean exile, dispersion, modernity.
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And we have to begin with the foundational anchor, the God of
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Israel, before anything else. Judaism is centered on God.
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Its starting point is the confession of one true God, the
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Creator, the King, the merciful Lord, who didn't stay distant
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but actually intervened in history.
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Right. He acted.
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He called Israel into this covenant relationship with him.
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Exactly. This isn't some abstract
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philosophical idea. This is a living, speaking,
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acting deity. Now this sounds very familiar to
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our own context, of course, but how do these sources really
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stress that this confession of God shapes the daily life of a
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practitioner? It shapes everything through
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practice. This identity gets expressed
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through very concrete acts. We're talking structured prayer
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three times a day. We're talking the recitation of
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blessings. Bear COD over the most mundane
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daily activities. Like what for example?
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Washing hands, eating a meal, seeing a rainbow, and crucially,
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the intentional sanctification of time itself.
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The claim is really unambiguous. If you remove the confession of
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the living, speaking God of Israel, you are stepping away
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from Judaism's classic gravitational center.
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Even if some of the cultural stuff remains.
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All right, even if the food or the holiday celebrations are
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still there, the center is gone. Got it.
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The practice is driven by the theology.
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So moving to the second anchor, Torah.
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And we need to be careful with the English word law here, don't
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we? We absolutely do.
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The Hebrew word Torah really means instruction or teaching or
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guidance. It is God's covenant teaching
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and it functions as narrative, you know, the stories of
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creation and redemption, and as command the specific rules for
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living. So it's also memory and mandate
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what God has done and what Israel must do.
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Yes, it tells Israel both who they are and what faithfulness
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has to look like. It holds the foundational
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stories, like the powerful narrative of the Exodus, right
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alongside precise guidance for temple worship, for social
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justice, for communal order. And I understand that the study
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of this instruction is itself regarded as a form of devotion.
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Is that correct? That is correct, and it's so
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important. It's not just about accumulating
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information or facts. It's a spiritual exercise.
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It's a practice intended to shape the very character of the
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person. By dwelling in God's
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instruction, the worshipper is being formed into a covenant
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member. And this idea of study as
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devotion that becomes, I imagine, incredibly important
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later on, especially after the temple is gone.
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It becomes central. Now, when we talk about Torah
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today, our sources noted A contemporary difference across
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the various streams of Judaism. Can you elaborate on how
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different groups view the application of this instruction?
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Certainly this is where the term halaka comes in.
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Halaka refers to the collective body of Jewish religious law,
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and it's derived from the Written and the Oral Torah.
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For Orthodox and some Conservative streams, Halaka is
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comprehensive and it is absolutely binding.
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It governs everything. Everything from diet to dress to
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marital relations. They see the interpretation of
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the rulings of the rabbis as binding extensions of that
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original instruction from Sinai. And the other side of that coin?
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Other groups, particularly Reform or secular Jews, they
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tend to treat the Torah as more of a moral and spiritual
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inheritance, something that allows for significant
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adaptation to modern life and culture.
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But even in those cases, the Torah is still the essential
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reference point. You wish life is understood as
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received instruction, not as a system that's just self invented
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by the individual. Which brings us to the third
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anchor. And this seems highly
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distinctive. It's crucial for understanding
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how this people survived being scattered everywhere.
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Israel as peoplehood. This is the anchor that
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differentiates Judaism most clearly from our modern
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definitions of religion. The identity is just inseparable
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from the communal reality of a specific people formed by a
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shared covenant memory. So it's not a voluntary
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association. You don't just join it like a
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social club or even a church. No, historically it is not.
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Judaism has been experienced as an inherited communal identity
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is carried through family lines, through shared rituals to be
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established institutions. You are born into the covenant
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membership, and that identity defines your relationship to the
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entire community. And this explains precisely why
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that identity could persist for two millennia in diaspora
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conditions, even when their political sovereignty, the
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temple, a central geographical location, all of that was
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absent. That's it.
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Identity was preserved by the rituals practiced in the home.
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It was preserved by the synagogue acting as the communal
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Center for prayer and study, by maintaining a shared calendar,
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and by systems of mutual care. These portable elements all
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continuously signaled and reinforced Covenant membership,
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even when a nation was scattered across the entire globe.
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Finally, that brings us to the 4th anchor, which is practice
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often called orthopraxy, and this connects back to those
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daily readings we mentioned under the first anchor.
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Right where belief or orthodoxy is certainly important, but
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Jewish tradition holds that the identity is truly sustained by
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the rhythms that are kept by lived faithfulness.
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These practices aren't secondary, they are formative
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acts that define reality. OK, let's focus on one of those
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key practices. The source emphasized sacred
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time. How does the weekly keeping of
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Shabbat structure their understanding of the world?
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Well, Shabbat, the weekly Sabbath, is a structured
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interruption of productive labor.
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For 25 hours, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, the
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world pauses. For the faithful, it's a time
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for rest, for contemplation, family prayer.
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And in doing that, they're making a statement about time
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itself. They're actively defining time
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not by human labor or production or consumption, but by God's
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calendar and God's pattern of rest following creation.
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This weekly repetition anchors their entire existence.
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And that same rhythm extends to the annual cycle as well.
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Yes, exactly. The annual festivals Passover,
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Yom Kippur, Sukkot, they rehearse the foundational
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memories, redemption, repentance, provision, and on
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top of that practice includes the vital ethical dimension,
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justice, charity, sedaka, honesty, care for the
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vulnerable. So covenant faithfulness has to
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be visible on public conduct. It has to be.
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It resists any attempt to split the spiritual life from material
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reality. These 4 anchors God, Torah,
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peoplehood and practice. They give us a really clear
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framework for defining Judaism. Now, to grasp the current shape
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of Jewish life, we have to recognize how these 4 anchors
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were, well, brutally tested by historical catastrophe.
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The original story moves from the patriarchs who received the
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promise of land and seed through the definitive act of
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redemption, the Exodus. And that deliverance culminated
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at Sinai with the instruction of Torah clarifying that the God
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who saves also sets the rules for the relationship.
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Right, and this brings us to the Temple era, where for centuries
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worship was geographically and ritually centralized.
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In Jerusalem. This meant the priesthood, the
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system of sacrifices, korbanot and the pilgrimage festivals
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were the primary mechanisms for relating to God and seeking
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atonement. But even then, the prophets were
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there insisting that the external ritual worship couldn't
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stand alone. All the time it had to be
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married to demands for social justice and personal obedience.
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Isaiah and Amos are constantly condemning those who bring their
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sacrifices while neglecting the poor.
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Then comes the first major test, the destruction of the first
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temple in 586 BC and the deportations to Babylon, the
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trauma of exile. That event forced Israel to
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figure out how to preserve its identity without political
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sovereignty, without the physical land, and without the
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central mechanism of the Temple. So faithfulness had to shift.
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It had to become portable. It had to.
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It shifted to increase prayer, to keeping the Sabbath study of
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the existing scriptures and circumcision.
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That experience taught them a crucial lesson.
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Identity could travel with the people.
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OK, here is where the source material says it gets truly
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unique and, well, catastrophic. Because the destruction the
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Second Temple by the Romans in 70-CE was not just a repeat of
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the first exile, it was a complete final theological
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dismantling of the entire Mosaic operating system.
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It just created a void. It was a world ending event for
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the Judaism that had existed up to that point.
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It fulfilled the words of Jesus of Nazareth.
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See, your house is left to you desolate.
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The theological crisis facing the Jewish survivors was
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immediate and existential because the Torah is absolutely
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explicit on how to deal with sin and.
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That is. Leviticus 17.11 says For the
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life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given it for you
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on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the
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blood that makes atonement by the life.
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So no temple altar and no blood sacrifices.
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The whole system just stops. It stops, and without the
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genealogical records which were destroyed with a temple, the
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Levitical priesthood could no longer be authenticated to
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perform the required rituals. The entire apparatus God had
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specifically commanded for addressing sin in the Mosaic
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system was just obliterated. So for the Jewish community that
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rejected the messianic claims of Jesus, this left a terrifying
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vacuum. I mean, how can a person be
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right with God without the shedding of blood?
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How are sins forgiven? Precisely.
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And this vacuum spurred with the sources called the invention of
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Rabbinic Judaism. What specifically happened at
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Yavna? The story of Rabbi Johann and
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Benzakai seems vital here. It is Rabbi Johann and Benzakai,
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a leader among the Pharisees. He realized the Roman
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destruction was inevitable, the tradition says.
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He had himself smuggled out of the besieged city of Jerusalem
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in a coffin, and he secured permission from the Roman
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general Vespasian to establish a Center for Torah study in Yavna.
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So this was the pivot point. This was the pivot point.
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It allowed their surviving Pharisaic scholars, the
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predecessors of the modern rabbis, to reconstruct Judaism
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for survival in this new age of Diaspora.
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And they had to replace the temple centric functions with
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something portable, something that could be practiced
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anywhere. So what were the specific
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replacements? They systematically replaced the
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temple with the synagogue, the House of Assembly, where people
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could gather to pray and read the instruction.
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They replace the priest, the official mediator of sacrifices,
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with the rabbi, the scholar and teacher of the law.
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And most critically. Most critically, they replaced
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sacrifice, the blood based atonement, with three human
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efforts to fill a prayer to Shuva, repentance or returning
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to God, and Sedaka, charity or righteous giving.
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Wait, I need a clearer sense of the magnitude of that
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substitution. Prayer, repentance, charity.
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Those are good things. But how did they become legally
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equivalent to the blood of the animal on the altar?
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This required a really radical reinterpretation of their own
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scriptures to provide a justification for this new
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bloodless system. They look, for instance, to
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Hosea 14.2, which contains the phrase We will render the fruit
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of our lips. Of our lips.
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The Rabbi's took this phrase to mean that the recitation of the
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sacrificial laws or prayer that mentioned them became legally
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equivalent to the actual performance of the sacrifices.
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The words of the mouth were substituted for the actions of
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the altar. So the practice of studying and
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reciting the Torah became the functional equivalent of the
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Temple ritual that the Torah itself required.
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That is a massive shift of authority.
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It's a profound shift. This adaptation birthed the
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modern form of Judaism, the Oral Law.
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The traditions and interpretations of the Rabbi's
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were later codified in the Mishnah and then expanded and
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commented upon in the massive compilation known as the Talmud.
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And the Talmud then becomes the new operating manual for Jewish
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life outside of the Temple system.
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Exactly. The Talmud became the essential
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lens through which the written Torah was read and applied.
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This effectively prioritized rabbinic interpretation and
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tradition, often elevating it above the plain written text of
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the Scripture itself, especially on the necessity of blood
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atonement and on the Messianic prophecies.
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The crisis of 70 AD was the definitive historical pivot that
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solidified Rabbinic Judaism as a faith designed explicitly to
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bypass the necessity of the altar.
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So if that historical pivot created this new operational
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structure for Judaism, what does this all mean when we analyze it
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through the specific lens of Reformed covenant theology?
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Our source says the theological key to understanding the current
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state of Israel is the difference between the
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averythemic and the Mosaic covenants.
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This distinction is absolutely crucial.
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It's crucial for understanding both why Israel has been
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preserved and what its current spiritual posture is.
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Let's start with the Abrahamic covenant.
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This is the root of the olive tree that Paul talks about in
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Romans 11. It's a covenant of promise, and
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it's defining feature is that it's unilateral.
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It's unconditional. Unilateral meaning one sided.
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How does Genesis 15 illustrate that point?
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I remember the imagery of the split animals.
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In the ancient Near Eastern covenant ceremony, both parties
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would typically walk between the divided pieces of the sacrificed
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animals. It's symbolized that if either
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party broke the contract, they deserve to be cut in two like
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the animals. But in Genesis 15, God tells
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Abraham to prepare the pieces, and then Abraham falls into a
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deep sleep. He's passive, he's unable to
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act. Correct.
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While Abraham was passive, God alone represented by the smoking
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firepot in the flaming torch passed between the pieces.
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This means God made an oath to himself securing the entire
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covenant on his own fidelity alone.
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It's fulfillment does not depend on Abraham's performance or his
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descendants performance. So this unilateral act secures
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the irrevocable election and the preservation of the physical
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descendants, the seed of Israel. Precisely.
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It depends entirely on God's faithfulness, not Israel's
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actions. This is why our sources stress
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the rejection of replacement theology.
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God's gifts and His calling to Israel are irrevocable.
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As Romans 11.29 confirms, God is eternally pledged to preserve
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this people regardless of their current disobedience or
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spiritual blindness. OK, now in stark contrast, the
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Mosaic covenant, which was given centuries later at Sinai,
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operates under entirely different mechanics.
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It's fundamentally a covenant of law, and it is strictly
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conditional. The formula for the relationship
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is clear from Exodus 19.5. If you will indeed obey My voice
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and keep my covenant, then you shall be My treasured
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possession. Obedience is the prerequisite.
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So if the Abrahamic covenant was a sovereign guarantee, the
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Mosaic covenant sounds like a highly conditional operating
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manual. That is a great way to put it.
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And its function was never to provide salvation.
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Paul clarifies that the law was added because of transgressions.
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It was meant to function as a pay to go goes.
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That's a technical Greek word. So for the curious listener,
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what does pay to go goes mean in plain English?
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A pedagogo's wasn't a formal teacher but often a slave who
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supervised the son of the master.
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He would ensure the boy behaved 8 correctly, was protected, but
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his primary job was to guide him to the ultimate teacher.
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Paul is saying the law acted like a highly strict, non
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negotiable tutor or guardian. Its job was to reveal sin,
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pronounce guilt, and thus lead the people to the real solution,
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which is Christ. So it provided this
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uncompromising standard that just exposed the depth of human
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failure. That was its purpose, and this
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defines the chasm we mentioned earlier.
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Israel today is suspended between these two covenants.
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They are Abrahamically beloved, preserved solely by God's
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faithfulness, but they are mosaically condemned because
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they are seeking to live by the conditional law, which demands
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perfection without the blood sacrifice mechanism, the law
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itself prescribed for atonement. They're trying to secure the
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unilateral blessings of Abraham through the conditional
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requirements of Moses. A task rendered impossible since
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70-CE. And this theological tension
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leads us to three major systematic points of divergent
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between Rabbinic Judaism and new testing of Christianity.
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Let's address the first one. Theology proper, the nature of
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God. Both faiths recite the Shema
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hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is 1.
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So where is the difference? It lies in the interpretation of
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the word ichord, which means one Jewish adherence to strict
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Unitarian monotheism interprets a keyed as a mathematical
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singularity, one single indivisible person.
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They view the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, one God in three
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distinct persons, as Shittio. Shittouf.
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What does that term mean? Shittouf is the concept of
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associating something or someone else with God.
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To them, the Trinity borders on polytheism or idol worship.
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They see it as dividing the absolute oneness of God.
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Whereas Christian theology understands a keyed as a
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compound unity. Right.
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We understand ekkad to allow for internal plurality within the
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Godhead, and this is consistent with how the term is used
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elsewhere in Scripture, for example in Genesis 2.24, where
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two individuals, a man and a woman, become one flesh ekkad.
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So while we share the name YHWH, the conceptual object of worship
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is fundamentally different, and that impacts everything else.
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The second chasm is an anthropology, the condition of
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man, and this is a critical disagreement that really
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dictates the means of salvation. It is.
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Rabbinic Judaism categorically rejects the doctrine of original
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sin or total depravity, the idea that the Fall corrupted human
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nature entirely and passed that corruption down to all
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descendants. So they don't accept the idea
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that humanity is inherently guilty and spiritually dead from
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birth. No they don't.
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They hold that man is born with a clean slate and possesses 2
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competing internal forces, the yetzer hot off the good impulse
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and the yetzer hara the evil impulse, and the individual
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retains the moral ability to choose obedience and overcome
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that evil impulse. That sounds like they maintain
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that man has the ability to earn righteousness on his own terms.
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It does, and this view stands in direct opposition to our
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Reformed understanding, drawn from Scripture, summarized by
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the Westminster Confession, that man is wholly defiled in all his
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faculties, alienated from God, and is dead in sin.
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We're utterly lacking the moral ability to save ourselves or
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even choose God apart from divine regeneration.
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And that anthropological error, the belief that man is sick but
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not dead, then determines the third chasm, soteriology, the
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means of salvation. Exactly because man is viewed as
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capable of moral self correction, the cure is human
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effort, not spiritual resurrection through the work of
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a mediator. So salvation is achieved through
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that trio we discussed earlier to Shuva, repentance to Fila.
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Prayer and Sedaka charity. And in this system, the Rabbi's
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teach that good deeds and repentance are sufficient to
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shield the worshipper against the punishment for sin.
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Yes, the worshipper is trusting in their own accumulated merit,
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or maybe the merits of their ancestors, to balance the scales
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of divine justice. Paul explicitly addressed this
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when he said that by works of the law, no human being will be
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justified in his sight. This system of self merit is the
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absolute antithesis of the gospel of justification by faith
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alone, soul of feed, which relies solely on the alien
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righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer.
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So if we move from the past and the present theological divide
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of the future, the sources provide a very specific outlook.
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It's based on a literal interpretation of prophecy, what
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we often refer to as a dispensational hermeneutic.
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And the key is that the story of Israel, while it's currently
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paused in terms of covenant fulfillment during the Church
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age, is definitively not closed. Right.
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Which means that when we read the Old Testament prophecies
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about the restoration and future reign of Israel, we understand
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those promises to apply literally to the physical nation
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of Israel, not figuratively to the Church.
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The current Church age is, in this view, a kind of
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parenthetical period. That's right, God's specific
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timeline for your people in your in the city and Daniel 9
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dictates that the final period for Israel is the outstanding
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70th week of Daniel's prophecy. A7 year period that is still to
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come. And according to this
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perspective, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, as
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Paul says in Romans 11, God will resume his specific dealings
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with the nation of Israel to bring them to faith.
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What initiates this resumption? It's initiated by a period of
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intense discipline, often referred to as the time of
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Jacob's trouble from Jeremiah 30.7.
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This corresponds to the Great Tribulation, and it is crucial
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to see the purpose of discipline here.
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This isn't just random global chaos, it is a divine kiln
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designed specifically for the purification of Israel.
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Can you give us an Old Testament image for that process?
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Ezekiel 20 is a good one. It describes God bringing Israel
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into the wilderness to purge the rebels from among them.
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The suffering and persecution during this time are intended to
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shatter their pride and their reliance on human efforts,
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whether those are political, military, or religious.
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Like Deshuva and Sedaka, The goal is to bring a spiritually
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hardened people to the point of utter desperation and
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repentance. And the ultimate climax of this
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discipline is not destruction, but national regeneration.
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Exactly. The source material emphasizes
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that this conversion is triggered by the physical,
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visible return of Christ to the Mount of Olives.
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That's when the judicial blindness that has covered the
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nation for two millennia is finally removed.
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And the most profound moment of this conversion is captured in
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Zechariah 12.10. Yes, the text says.
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They will look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn for
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Him as one mourns for an only Son.
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This is the moment. This is when the nation
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collectively recognizes that the Jesus of Nazareth, whom their
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forefathers rejected and it was crucified, is none other than
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the Yahweh whom they worshipped in the temple.
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It's the realization that the Messiah they ignored was a
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divine means of atonement they so desperately needed all along.
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And following this moment, the covenants we discussed,
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especially the Davidic and New covenants, will find their
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literal fulfillment. So the Davidic covenant, the
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promise of an eternal Kingdom, will be realized in the
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millennial Kingdom. That's right, Christ will reign
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from a literal earthly throne in Jerusalem, and the remnant of
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Israel will finally function as the Kingdom of priests to the
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nations, mediating God's blessings to the world.
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The promises of land and blessing given to Abraham,
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Isaac, and Jacob will be realized in their entirety.
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It proves that God always finishes what He starts.
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This future reality raises a really important question for us
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today. How should this theological
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understanding, which acknowledges both their
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preservation by promise and their current spiritual
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condemnation by law, how should that shape our interaction with
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the Jewish people? Our source stresses the priority
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of the Jew from Romans 1.16 and the need for a nuanced approach
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that centers on the logical distinction.
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Well, the primary obstacle we face in evangelism to the Jewish
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community is that self righteousness.
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We discussed the assumption that observance, cultural identity,
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or accumulated good deeds are sufficient to satisfy God.
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Evangelism must skillfully use the law to expose this
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insufficiency. So we have to apply the first
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use of the law to function as a mirror that exposes sin and
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guilt, specifically dismantling confidence in their system of
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human merit. This means we have to gently but
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firmly press the weight of the whole Mosaic covenant upon the
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conscience. As Paul reminds us, if a person
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relies on the law for righteousness, they're obligated
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to keep it perfectly and continuously.
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That standard is impossible for any human to meet.
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We must ask, does your sincere repentance and charity truly
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satisfy the demand of a holy God who requires absolute
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perfection? And this leads directly to what
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the source calls the piercing question, which is rooted in
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their own Torah in history. We referenced Leviticus 17.11
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again, making it clear that blood is required for atonement.
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Then we highlight the structural impossibility of Rabbinic
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Judaism. Today, we ask, without the
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Temple and the authentic sacrifices which the Torah
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demands, how are your sins forgiven today?
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This question forces a confrontation with the reality
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of the desolate house and prepares the heart for the
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remedy. And the remedy is presenting the
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gospel as fulfillment, presenting Jesus or Yeshua not
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as a foreign concept or the founder of some Gentile
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religion, but as the one who kept the Law perfectly and is
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the substance of their own Jewish hopes and covenants.
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He is the ultimate Passover lamb.
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He is the true scapegoat of Yom Kippur.
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We have to explain that believing in him is not a
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betrayal of Jewish identity. It is the embrace of the very
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one promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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It's the completion of their own story.
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And finally, we have to address the historical challenge, which
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is just a massive wall for so many Jewish people.
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They often equate Christianity with the historical crimes of
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what we call Christendom, the Crusades, the Inquisition,
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centuries of forced conversions and pogroms.
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We absolutely must distinguish between those institutional
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failures and the true, peaceful, loving teachings of Christ.
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The call is for them to return to the God of their fathers
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through the Mediator He has already provided.
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It is a love that, as Paul hoped, should provoke them to
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jealousy, seeing the mercy and security we have found.
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So let's conclude this deep dive by reviewing the dual picture
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that our sources present on one hand, the remarkable historical
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continuity of a specific people held together by practice and
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peoplehood, and on the other, the current theological void
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created by the destruction of the Temple and the national
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rejection of the Messiah. Judaism stands today as a
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living, continuing testimony to two eternal realities.
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First, it testifies to the severity of God and the judicial
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blindness that resulted from rejecting the Messiah.
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There a house left desolate, seeking righteousness, where no
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covering exists. But at the same time.
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At the same time, it is also the ultimate proof of divine
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fidelity. The physical preservation of
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this specific people through millennia of dispersion,
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persecution, and historical attempts at annihilation is
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undeniable evidence that God's gifts and calling are
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irrevocable. We, as those grafted into their
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root, we recognize that their tradition has been historically
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resilient because it is carried by peoplehood, reinforced by
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practices, and sustained by human tradition.
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Yet the sources make it very clear that ultimate security,
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the atonement, the peace with God, the Promised Land, rests
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entirely outside of human achievement and fully within the
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finished accomplishment of the Messiah.
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And as you, our listener, reflect on this deep dive,
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consider the physical preservation of the Jewish
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people today. Scattered but gathered without a
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temple, but maintaining their ancient texts.
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If God has kept his unconditional promise to
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preserve Israel, the physical seed of Abraham, through every
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failure and every historical catastrophe, what does that
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evidence tell you about the certainty and security of his
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promise to you in the New Covenant, which rests entirely
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on the accomplished work of Christ?